Cognitive Labs

I just came across this interesting fact: there is a company called the Electric Sheep Company that helps people create businesses in 2nd Life. I found out about it on the IMdB boards in a discussion about Blade Runner. The solution to our test, the boards say, is to hammer away at the space bar - otherwise you're a replicant.

Here is a fascinating look at the brain of a woman presumed to be in a non-recoverable coma and with no consciousness. The 23-year old was in a car accident and eventually assumed a normal pattern of sleep and wakefulness while not responding to any stimuli.

However, when the patient was asked to remember playing tennis while being examined by MRI - areas of the brain lit up - just as if she were completely conscious.

Interesting fact...16% of people taking the brainspeed test (licensed) have master's or doctoral degrees.

You can take the brainspeed test (powered by Cognitive Labs) here.

Q. What do you think the most common birth year is?
A. 1950

Donepezil (Aricept) shown to benefit patients over 50 with severe impairment...The selective acetylcholine esterase inhibitor donepezil provides greater improvements in cognition and global function than placebo in patients who have severe Alzheimer's disease (AD) and reside in the community or in assisted-living facilities. Donepezil is also well tolerated and provides benefits throughout the course of AD.

This multinational, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was presented at the 10th Congress of the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) on behalf of the authors by Elias Schwam, PhD, senior clinical director, Worldwide Alzheimer's Team, Pfizer Inc., New York, New York

By now everyone has heard about Steve Irwin and the Stingray. May he RIP. He turns up in this test, just by happenstance, which is about a month old.

That news event lamented the passing of Harriet the turtle who belonged to Charles Darwin. Harriet almost outlived the man who is seen playfully caring for her

It's a good idea to avoid trans fats and too much copper, along with certain saturated fats, in order to maintain a healthy brain.

Trans Fats were developed in World War II to preserve MREs and deliver a caloric punch. However, since that time they have proliferated in commercial foods.

Evidence seems to show that the 'lack of scarcity' in the diet may be one of the factors that triggers people with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's (APOEe4 positive/positive) to be at much higher risk. Trans Fats seem to accelerate the lack of scarcity.

Also, a cast iron pot will deliver more benefits than a copper one.

Somebody did a Darwin, turtle paired keyword search on Google and
came right to the Darwin/Harriet test
http://www.google.com/search?q=darwin, turtle&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&start=10&sa=N